


A Very Monster Christmas

by foxes_in_henrietta



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andrew's monsters, It's Christmas time, M/M, Multi, brief upperclassmen appearence, just a bunch of fluff, set neil's second year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 04:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13068969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxes_in_henrietta/pseuds/foxes_in_henrietta
Summary: Neil Josten never really celebrated Christmas. The last time he remembered ever having a Christmas was in a motel room in some god-forsaken town. Neil and his mother had shared two frozen dinners of turkey and mashed potatoes. Mary didn't give Neil anything that year but a chance to keep living. Now he was in his second year of college and surrounded by new family and a new chance to live.





	A Very Monster Christmas

Neil Josten never really celebrated Christmas. The last time he remembered ever having a Christmas was in a motel room in some god-forsaken town. Neil and his mother had shared two frozen dinners of turkey and mashed potatoes. Mary didn't give Neil anything that year but a chance to keep living. Now he was in his second year of college and surrounded by a new family and a new chance to live.

Nicky had planned the gift exchange. He made up formal invitations for all the monsters and placed them on their beds after they had all gone to class. It would have been easier to just tell them, but Nicky always had a touch for theatrics. Andrew threw his away but another one appeared on his bed the next night. Kevin was suspicious at first but figured he could get a new bottle of vodka out of it, maybe a new racquet if they weren't being stingy. That hope was shattered when he saw the fifty-dollar limit. Aaron was very annoyed by this. He had plans with Katelyn that night that were thrown to the curb when she said he needed to go to spend time with his brother and try to get along with Neil. Aaron told himself he'd get her the best present he could find. Neil was surprisingly all for it. He thought it'd be nice to actually cement his place here and in their lives by giving them things they could actually want and use.

Shopping was a fun experience. Andrew had picked out a Friday morning to skip morning gym and classes in order to buy what they needed for everyone. Neil thought it was nice for just the two of them to go out and shop. In his mind, he thought it was what a date might be like if they were normal. Andrew had put Neil in the car and driven towards the nearest mall. Neil had been in malls before, but that had been with his mother, not with his small boyfriend leading the way.

The first store they went into was a hard pass. Neil saw clothing and thought of Nicky, but as soon as he walked in, Andrew pulled him right back out. They kept walking until they found a store that was destined to have everything they needed for Nicky.

Andrew walked into the store and looked over to Neil. “Going to look around or are you just going to stand there?” he asked.

Neil was stuck gazing at the all the different signs that were in different languages.

“What exactly is this place?” Neil asked as he started down an aisle of items one might find in an English tea shop.

“World Market.” Andrew walked straight towards the back of the store where he knew the foreign candy was. Neil got the idea after a moment. They were going to buy Nicky a taste of Germany. A small bit of home for him to have while he was still here.

Neil didn’t know his way around the store, so he had to follow the goalkeeper and trust he was leading him somewhere useful. He was wrong. The candy on the shelves came from every single country. Andrew was putting handfuls of candy into the basket, so Neil had to put them back every time Andrew had his back turned.

“I support your interest in foreign things, but we’re here for three very picky people,” Neil said. He had to remind himself to get Andrew something when he had a moment to himself. But honestly, knowing what Andrew wanted was one of the hardest challenges ever.

They spent an hour in the store before they decided what they had in their basket was enough to give to Nicky. They left the store with a bag each of Nicky’s gifts and a small bag full of candy for Andrew to eat.

Andrew knew what he would get his brother. He knew he was into science and whatever that had to do with, so he told Neil they’d go to some thrift store. Neil quickly vetoed that option. They walked around the mall a while longer before stopping in a nerdy game store.

The two left a while later with video games and a strange doctor coat that Andrew found in the back.

“That’s a blanket,” Neil explained. He showed him where his hands went. “You’ve seen the commercials.”

Andrew sighed as he snatched the blanket back. “I’ve seen the commercials. 230%,” he said as they walked into a clothing store.

Kevin was the easiest one to find a present for. The Walmart in the mall sold gift cards to Exites, so Andrew and Neil bought a hundred-dollar gift card, wrote “From Neil and Andrew” on it and threw it in an envelope.

Neil had to wrap his mind around what to get Andrew. For a guy who constantly said he wanted nothing, it would be hard to find something to wrap up in a box. As they were walking out of the last store, Neil spotted them out of the corner of his eye. A pair of simple black shoes. Andrew could use new shoes. These weren’t fancy or anything special, but a pair of shoes were needed in every day life. Neil picked them up and snuck away from Andrew to buy them. It was difficult hiding them on the way home, but Andrew didn’t ask about the large bag hanging from Neil’s arm.

The next few days involved a lot of sneaking around. With four people in one apartment, hiding places became scarce. The sooner the gifts were wrapped the better. Nicky had hidden himself away at least three times during the course of the week to try to get his wrapping just right. In the end he had four impeccable boxes placed on the desk in a pyramid.

One by one more packages arrived and were placed next to Nicky. It was obvious whose was whose. Kevin’s was plainly wrapped with specialty wrapping paper and chess piece stickers. Nicky’s were obviously the perfectly wrapped boxes with colorful ribbons while Aaron’s were wrapped in modest brown parchment paper that Katelyn probably wrapped. When it came to Andrew and Neil’s gifts, Andrew’s were thrown haphazardly into gift bags while Neil’s were placed neatly, but Neil and Andrew decided to keep them hidden until the day of because it made Neil uneasy to have the presents laying around.

The night before the exchange was planned, Nicky brought in a ten-dollar cactus from some twenty-four-hour gas station, and decorated it with strings of battery operated lights. He placed it on the top of the desk with the presents all around it. He placed a fruitcake on the counter to tie everything together. Andrew came by to remove it, but somehow it appeared again in the morning.

They set about the morning of the exchange in their normal routines, Kevin with his ten minutes in front of the mirror, Andrew slowly getting dressed, and Neil running over a last-minute Spanish test on the bed. Nicky, however, was ready way before the others. He stood in the kitchen with his ugly Christmas sweater on, sipping cocoa from a to-go mug. He was ready for his Christmas filled day. And the others knew well enough not to ruin this day for him. Andrew had even gone so far as to threaten Kevin and Aaron with Nair in their shampoo bottles if they ruined the day for Nicky. What Neil knew was that Andrew was more concerned with giving Neil the Christmas he never had, which was Nicky’s main concern.

The monsters were supposed to meet back in the room after afternoon practice, where Nicky had promised a real Christmas. Neil didn’t know what that meant but he had overheard talk about getting Wymack to come to the dorm in a Santa outfit. What was more likely was that Nicky got Renee and Allison to bake cookies for them in the shape of Santa.

As Neil changed after practice, he thought to himself about the gifts he had stored in that old safe of his. He was concerned that he didn’t know these boys enough to get them things they actually wanted. Would they want his gifts? What if he was the worst gift giver ever? That made Andrew a bad gift giver too. He pushed his thoughts aside as he got dressed in his normal clothes and met Andrew by the door.

Andrew drove them all home. All except Nicky, who had had Matt drop him off earlier while everyone else waited for Neil to change out. When they all walked into the apartment, they were stunned at the amount of Christmas decorations hanging from every square inch. Nicky had put up snowflakes, garland, mistletoe, and lights around the whole room. Neil made a note to take Andrew under the mistletoe and avoid Nicky there.

Aaron ran into a hanging garland and pulled it down in retaliation. Kevin laughed as he walked in and sat down on the couch.

 Nicky walked out of the bedroom. “Welcome to the North Pole!” he said to them. “Cookies and fruitcake are over there with the punch.” 

Neil watched Andrew make a beeline for the cookies. He figured it’d be the best chance he’d get to grab the presents. He brought them out and placed them on the top of the small pile.

“Hiding them from us?” Kevin asked from the counter. He had a glass of punch and was pouring an unhealthy amount of vodka in it.

“I like to know where things are and who can see them.” Neil made sure they were all there before moving over to Andrew. “I knew they were going to be Santa Claus cookies,” he said.

Nicky held up a cookie. “This one is named Wymack. He’s dressed up like sexy Santa.”

Kevin took a sip from his glass. “Please don’t call my dad a sexy Santa.” He turned on his heels and went to sit by Aaron.

After Andrew got all the cookies he wanted, they all gathered around the desk to start with the presents. Nicky started playing soft Christmas music as he passed out presents. They started with Kevin’s gifts. Andrew said it was because he wanted to rip up the ugly orange paper. Aaron opened his first and it was a custom phone case. It was orange and had his number on it. Nicky got an orange sweatshirt with his name and number bedazzled on the back. It apparently took a lot of favors to get it in so quickly. Andrew got a case of chocolate protein shakes so he would stop stealing Kevin’s in the morning. Lastly, Neil was gifted with a copy of Kayleigh Day’s oldest notes when she was developing Exy. It didn’t cost much, but it meant a lot to Neil in a strange way.

Aaron volunteered to go next. He passed them out one by one. Kevin opened his first and was surprised to find a large poster of the Trojan Exy team. Aaron revealed he found it in a comic book store and knew Kevin didn’t have it. Nicky got customized coffee mugs with Erik’s face on them. Neil was surprised because he knew Aaron didn’t really ever voice anything positive about Nicky’s relationship, but it was nice to see that he did notice. Andrew got a giant chocolate bar that said it was five pounds and Kevin was not happy about it. Neil didn’t expect much but he was surprised to find that he got a new pair of track pants that he could run in and some earphones. He assumed it was for music but now he needed to find some music he liked.

Andrew said he and Neil would go together. They passed out each present to everyone and threw the small envelope at Kevin’s face. Kevin caught it and opened it. His face lit up in surprise at the gift card from the both of them. Nicky opened his bag and pulled out a Germany flag blanket, a beer stein, a picture frame, and a plane ticket to Germany. That was over the limit but Andrew said he didn’t care at all so no one pitched a fit. Aaron opened his video games from Neil and then his blanket with sleeves from Andrew. He put it on at everyone’s request and saw that it was a doctor’s coat. He gave a small smile and rolled it back up. Neil handed Andrew his shoe box and Andrew handed Neil his bag. Neil pulled out a small binder with photos from his first year at Palmetto. A lot of photos were taken from Nicky’s phone. There were plenty of pages left for the years to come. Andrew opened to see his shoes and nodded. They were simple but Neil knew he appreciated the gesture. It showed he paid attention to everything.

Nicky broke up the staring contest between the two of them to hand out his presents. He was giggling with excitement. Neil knew that Nicky cared enough to get them amazing presents. He cared enough to put this small party on and that’s what Neil had grown to like. Kevin received a customized shirt with Jeremy’s face and number on it. Nicky apparently claimed that it was always safe to customize something if you didn’t know what to get the person. Aaron got movie tickets for a date with Katelyn and driving lessons with Nicky. Andrew opened his box to find new arm bands. They weren’t black but designed like an ugly Christmas sweater. Nicky claimed it was festive. Andrew shocked them all by turning around and slipping them on. Neil found out later that they had built in sheaths for his knives as well. Neil was the last to open his present. It was a collection of items from shirts to shot glasses that said ‘Neil Josten #10”. Neil knew he was Neil for a while now and he had his name on his jersey, but the feeling he got every time he saw his name was undescribed. He picked up a small picture frame with this year’s team photo in it.

“I figured you like your name enough. Might as well remind you who you are every chance you get. It was Aaron’s idea too,” Nicky said. He smiled at Neil and pulled out orange socks with Neil’s name on them. “You don’t have to wear them all at once. In fact, please don’t.”

“Thank you.” Neil nodded. “Thanks for all these gifts.” And like that, it was over.

Nicky got up and went to invite the upperclassmen over to eat the cookies and fruitcake.  They came for the cookies, music, and alcohol, but even Renee politely declined the fruitcake.

Neil watched as the upperclassmen danced together along with Nicky and Kevin. He made his way to a corner to stand and observe silently. Andrew found him after a while and leaned up against the wall next to him.

“Is this the Christmas you always hoped for?” Andrew asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I figured you would hate Christmas,” Neil said back, his eyes still locked on those who were dancing.

“I hate everything about the holiday,” Andrew told him. He looked up at the ceiling where a sprig of mistletoe hung.  “You knew that was there the whole time.”

Neil gave a small shrug, trying to hide his smile. Andrew leaned over and placed a kiss on his lips.

“231%.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first fic every here and I'm excited to start learning more and growing in my writing. I wanna thank my beta Row aka artemis_west. tfc discord really encouraged me to start trying my hat at this.


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